Earnest Prayer

God lives and works today. He is a God who answers prayer, that is, earnest, beleaning prayer. But what should we do? How can we learn to pray so that our prayers will be a sure weapon against the forces of evil? Today's meditation by Basilie Ischling talks about this power of prayer.

The prayer of those whom God has seared, burst open island portals, to pray with faith gives strength to all, and changes pain and doubt is calm, to flowers in love's garden. Since our Lord Jesus added the exhortation that we always ought to pray and not to faint, the quality of our prayer life really matters. Yes, how many of us know earnest prayer, which is really a wrestling intercession? Do we not rather know the lukewarm prayer, after which we hardly remember what we've prayed for, because it didn't vitally concern us? A prayer today for this, tomorrow for that, and so on.

If we don't take our intercession seriously, how can we ever expect God to take it seriously? Satan mocks at such lukewarm, slothful prayer, and keeps those prayed for securely in his grip. In his parable of the petitioning widow, in Luke, chapter 18, the Lord exhorts us not to faint, but to persist, because he knows that while we seek for the salvation of those concerned, the adversary is seeking for their destruction. How important, therefore, to use the only weapon offered to us, believing prayer.

Jesus exhorts us, how can you sleep? Don't you know that sleep, when facing the enemy, means death? If here on earth we knew our loved ones to be facing the enemy, even if we couldn't see him behind the trenches, we wouldn't fall asleep, but use our weapons. Yet although this arch-enemy is facing our neighbor, our family, or our nation, we do fall asleep, and fail to use the weapon of prayer. Satan wants us not to take him seriously, so that we won't fight against him, and then he can control us easier.

But Jesus Christ has come to destroy the works of the devil. Therefore, what matters is to use his victorious name of Jesus Christ in prayer, according to the word, whoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Yes, where there's an enemy, there must be a fight, and battles require time.

Do we know such prayer? Battles in which we use the weapons of faith, in the prayer, hurl against Satan, ever renew the promises of God, until we've received the inner assurance that Jesus' love has been victorious over the souls for whom we've been wrestling? This is earnest prayer, which according to Scripture, availeth much. This is the prayer which our Lord Jesus is waiting for from us. So I from day to day, in love and trust will pray, and in my heart perceive, one day I will receive all I believed.

You have been listening to a program written by Basile Schlink of the Little Land of Canaan. To learn more about how God lives and works today, visit us at our website, www.canaan.org. That's K-A-N-A-A-N dot org. If you contact us, we would be happy to send you a free inspirational booklet.

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